Review: Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 tablet offers PC-like multitasking

Review: Samsung's new tablet offers PC-like multitasking

In Pic: Samsung's new tablet, Galaxy Note 10.1_2014 Edition, is demonstrated, on October 9, 2013 in New York.

The tablet goes on sale in the US on Thursday at a starting price of $550.

If you have been missing the personal computers-like copability on your mobile devices and tablets, then you can marvel at a pair of multitasking features that come with Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 _ 2014 Edition.

Text & Image courtesy: AP, www.samsung.com

Click on to know all the specifications and features...

1/7

Look and feel

The tablet's back is still made of plastic, but it feels like leather, which is an improvement over previous Samsung devices.

The tablet does feel heavy, at 0.54 kilograms, but that's still lighter than the 0.64 kilograms for the full-size iPad.

If you want light, wait until early November for the large-size version of Amazon's Kindle Fire HDX. It weighs just 0.38 kilogram.

Samsung's tablet is also pricey _ the $550 starting price tops the iPad's $499 and the Fire's $379.

Of course, neither the iPad nor the Fire offers a stylus.

2/7

First multitasking feature: Multi-Window

The tablet offers you enough screen space to do multiple tasks simultaneously.

Multi-Window has been available in Samsung devices for about a year, but it works with many more apps now.

In this tablet, you can run two apps side by side, such as Facebook on one side and YouTube video on the other.

Also you can draw or scribble while you are doing something else, like watching a movie.

In addition, Multi-Window isn't a universal feature. Apps for Netflix and Hulu won't work, for instance.

You currently have about 18 apps to choose from, including Facebook and a variety of Google and Samsung apps.

3/7

AP

Second multitasking feature: Pen Window

Simply draw a box on the screen with the included stylus, and choose one of seven apps to open in a new window.

Do it again and again until you open all seven apps, if you wish. That's nine in all, counting the two with Multi-Window.

Each Pen Window app appears in a window that floats over your main app (or two apps if you use Multi-Window).

You can move that window around on your screen and resize it, just as you can on PCs. Need a break from it? Just minimize it into a small dot and move it out of the way.

Like Multi-Window, you're restricted in what apps you can use with Pen Window, though it is expected more to get added over time.

For now, Pen Window on the tablet works with YouTube, the calculator, the alarm clock, your contacts list, the Web browser and two chat apps _ Samsung's ChatOn and Google's Hangouts.

The best part that iPad or Amazon's Kindle Fire or other Android tablets don't do is that you can open all of them and keep them out of the way in a minimized state. That way, it's just one click when you need the calculator and one click when you're done.

4/7

Third feature: My Magazine

The new Note tablet allows magazine-like experiences, and you can create your own menu screen by pinning your most used and loved apps, websites, videos, files and folders to your screen.

It gives you personalized highlights, such as news topics of interest, content from your social media feeds and suggestions on things to do and see, based on your current location.

It's a good concept, though Facebook isn't available through it yet.

The new tablet also gives you quick access to the tools you can accomplish with its stylus other than Pen Window.

It lets you add notes to a screenshot of what you see, and lets you clip a section of a web page and store it with a web link.

5/7

Some glitches

The text recognition was poor. It enables you to jot down an email address or phone number with the stylus and have that handwriting converted into a contacts entry.

But the device constantly confuses the letters 'o' and 'l' with the numerals '0' and '1'.

Pen Window also is more difficult than necessary to set up. You need to take out the stylus for an Air Command tool to appear on the screen.

You choose Pen Window, then draw a box on your screen with your stylus. Then you choose the app you want to open.

You havbe to do that all over again to get additional apps, after figuring out how to get Air Command again with your stylus already out.

It would have been simpler to have a button on the home screen that you can tap with your finger or stylus.

6/7

One complaint

Although the tablet uses the latest version of Android, 4.3, it doesn't offer that system's feature of letting multiple people share a device with separate profiles.

In addition, Samsung could have done more with the apps in minimized state.

Google's chat app is reduced to a circular icon. It could have flashed or changed colors to notify of a new chat message, rather than make the user open and close it regularly to check.

With the Note, it's clear some of the functionality we've long associated with PCs is coming to devices we're just getting to know.

But, there's more to be done, including support for multiple users, but Samsung is definitely leading us in that direction.